Penn St. Faces Big Road Trip In Indiana The Nittany Lions Play At Indiana And Purdue With The Big Ten Title At Stake.

February 14, 1996|by JEFF SCHULER, The Morning Call

Glenn Sekunda was doing some major-league damage control Monday afternoon.

In the wake of Penn State's milestone 82-68 win over Indiana Jan. 27 at the Jordan Center, the Nittany Lion senior inferred that the Hoosier mystique didn't affect this Penn State squad.

"Indiana is just another team to this ballclub, just like everybody else," he said. "I didn't watch them when I was growing up; I don't care for how many games Bobby Knight has won. That doesn't mean a thing to me. It doesn't matter what you've done in the past; just the present is what matters."

Sekunda's remarks quickly found their onto national TV sports programs, and naturally the IU faithful back in the Hoosier state didn't take kindly to them. So when an Indiana beat writer brought up the subject on the eve of the Lions' trip to Bloomington, Sekunda was ready.

"My intention wasn't to show disrespect to Indiana," Sekunda said. "Obviously, Bobby Knight's a great coach and he's done a lot for basketball.

"I think ESPN took it a little bit out of context. The question was about the mystique of Indiana, and I tried to make it clear they had five guys on the floor and we had five guys on the floor and our five played better that night. Indiana's a heck of a ballclub; our club knows that and so do I. If anything sounded derogatory about Indiana it was misunderstood."

Despite the explanation, expect Sekunda's initial remarks to add fuel to the fire tonight for the partisans in Assembly Hall when ninth-ranked Penn State (18-2, 9-2) begins perhaps the most important week in the school's 100-year basketball history against the Hoosiers (14-9, 7-4). The week continues Saturday against Big Ten co-leader Purdue (19-4, 9-2) in West Lafayette, Ind.

Despite the obvious significance of the road trip, Penn State coach Jerry Dunn tried his best to downplay its significance.

"I don't think you can group these two games together and say this is our season, because it certainly isn't," said Dunn, whose club broke into the Top 10 with back-to-back home wins over Purdue and Indiana. "Quite a few teams lose on the road in the Big Ten -- that's the kind of league it is -- so you try to win all your home games and hope to win as much as you can on the road."

Places like Assembly Hall and Mackey Arena are why life on the road in the Big Ten is so tough. The Hoosiers are 305-38 (.889) all-time in Assembly Hall, including a 72-5 record (.935) since the 1990-91 season, and are 61-21 at home against ranked teams. Purdue is almost as formidable at home, winning 83.5 percent of its games in its 29-year-old arena.

Still, Dunn, whose club is 2-2 on the road in the conference so far (winning both in overtime), feels his club is ready.

"Iowa's one of the toughest places to play and, having played there, hopefully we'll be ready for these games," said Dunn, whose club beat the Hawkeyes 95-87 in overtime.

The Lions leave the Jordan Center after struggling last week to extend their home-court winning streak to 15 with wins over Illinois (61-58) and Michigan State (54-50).

"We got stagnant and didn't run our offense the way we should have," Matt Gaudio said after Saturday's game when the Lions put up just 44 shots, second lowest total of the season. "We haven't put together a good 40 minutes recently and, if we play like this (at Indiana), we'll lose for sure."

Gaudio, who has becomethe Lions' go-to guy, is the heart of an inside game that has taken the pressure off snipers Pete Lisicky, the conference's top 3-point shooter, Dan Earl and Sekunda.

"I still say Penn State is one of the best basketball teams in the country because they can just beat you a lot of different ways," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "They're strong inside, they've got a great point guard (Earl), a lot of shooters and Matt Gaudio might be my MVP for this team."

With traditional powers Indiana and Michigan struggling and with memories of the conference's dismal 1-6 showing in last year's NCAA tournament still fresh, the Big Ten's reputation has taken a bashing, and there are those who equate Penn State's position in the standings with a perceived lack of strength of the conference. Dunn, however, bristles as such thoughts.

"I'm not sure if those people really know what they're talking about," he said. "I'm not going to sit here and try to convince people the conference is weak or strong. They only need to talk to people who have played Big Ten schools and who know basketball.

"Sometimes, when the traditional powers are not playing up to other people's expectations, then the teams who are there (at the top of the standings) aren't believed to be any good, either. I don't feel that way; I feel the Big Ten is still a great conference with a lot of very good teams."

"They make excuses because they don't think we're for real," Sekunda added, "but people are starting to realize that we are. People didn't want to believe how good the Northwestern football team was until they started beating everybody."